The present invention relates to novel manganese antimonate catalysts for use in various oxidation-type reactions, such as the oxidation of olefins to produce aldehydes and acids, the ammoxidation of olefins to produce unsaturated nitriles and the oxydehydrogenation of olefins to diolefins.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,035,418, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes certain manganese antimonate catalysts which are useful in various oxidation-type reactions. Our earlier application Ser. No. 107,964, filed Dec. 28, 1978, discloses certain tin antimonate catalysts promoted with various different elements. Although these catalysts give good yields of the desired end products in various oxidation-type reactions, it is always beneficial to provide new catalysts having superior catalytic properties.
U.K. patent application GB2,009,613A, which was published on Jun. 20, 1979, was cited in the parent applications for its disclosure in Example 4 of an iron antimonate catalyst containing V, Mo, W, Te and Cu as promoters. Additionally, this patent further teaches that the catalysts described therein are useful in the known ammoxidation of propylene to acrylonitrile as practiced herein. As previously indicated, this reference, even though it is relevant to the ammoxidation process, fails to suggest the present invention in the sense of 35 USC 103 since there is no reasonable suggestion in the record that a promoter system effective in an iron antimonate catalyst would be expected to be similarly effective as a promoter system in a manganese antimonate catalyst.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide new catalysts capable of providing superior yields of desired end products in various types of oxidation reactions.